Federal Foreign Office

The Arab Uprisings 2010/11 caused the removal of political leaderships in some countries, whereas no deep political change occurred in other cases. A critical discussion of two main competing approaches to explaining the (lack of) robustness of Arab regimes in the Uprisings-the oil rent stabilization thesis and the thesis of monarchical resilience-reveals that the oil rent stabilization thesis is theoretically sound but faces empirical challenges. To address them, we outline different rent concepts, which then serve as the basis for innovatively developing an approach of institutionalist rentierism. This approach pools an expanded, nuanced version of the rent stabilization thesis with insightful aspects of the thesis of monarchical resilience. After identifying Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Libya, Syria, Tunisia, the UAE, and Yemen as critical cases for the present comparative study, we discuss them in more detail, highlighting the relevance of different institutional settings. A major empirical finding is that different experiences with European imperialism often had a significant impact on authoritarian robustness.

Zusammenfassung Der Ständige Ausschuss Reisemedizin (StAR) der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Tropenmedizin, Reisemedizin und Globale Gesundheit (DTG) gibt jährlich Empfehlungen zu Reiseimpfungen. Diese Empfehlungen werden von unabhängigen Experten erstellt. Sie umfassen international verpflichtende sowie länderspezifische und gefährdungsbasierte Impfstrategien. Sie dienen als Entscheidungshilfe für medizinisches Fachpersonal und berücksichtigen Empfehlungen u. a. der WHO, des ECDC, der STIKO und nationaler Gesundheitsbehörden.

In an increasingly urbanized world, understanding the determinants of urban well-being will continue to grow in importance. Although the effects of different indicators of living conditions on well-being have been widely studied individually, little is known about their relative impact when examined jointly. In this study, we use a unique multi-source dataset that allows us to investigate the effect and relative importance of a variety of subjectively and objectively assessed aspects of urban living conditions on the subjective well-being (SWB) of German Foreign Service expatriates. The study captures living conditions in metropolises around the world at different stages of development, and assesses living conditions in a culturally comparably homogeneous set of participants, thus being potentially less confounded with cultural differences. Using linear regression and dominance analysis, we find that ‘quality of and access to nature’ (i.e., green space), ‘quality of housing’, and ‘quality of public goods’ (i.e., water, air, and sewage systems) have the strongest associations with SWB. Subjectively rated characteristics show stronger associations with SWB than externally assessed characteristics. Additionally, we examine whether the size of a city or the level of development of a country has an effect on SWB. Both living in a megacity (≥ 10 million inhabitants) and a lower development status have negative effects on SWB. However, these effects disappear when the various indicators of living conditions are controlled for. Our findings can inform organisations sending employees abroad as well as urban planners seeking to improve their policies and decision-making.